August 26, 2008

Winter in Australia, as indeed all of the seasons is generally measured not by the solstices or equinoxes, but by caldendar months. Jul-Sep is winter and each 3 months is a new season. This winter started out fairly cold, got really cold for a while, then a little wet, and has pretty well warmed up now, getting ready for spring, next week.

Not a lot of rain, so hopefully we'll get some late storms and some summer storms, to keep the dams full, and the bush and tinder dry and bushfire free.

One of the winter highlights, for generations of Sydneysiders has been a short visit to the Blue Mountains, now about an hour and a half by car from the city centre, or about a two hour rail trip by train (still part of the Sydney metropolitan line, albeit near the end of the line. In the 1950's and 60's guest houses and weekend parties were common and I can remember lots of weekends with family and friends soaking up the atmosphere, seeing the sites, all rugged up and having lots of fairly innocent fun. Then it sort of went passe in the 80's and 90's but like a lot of things, its come back as a genuine weekend or even day trip.

To that end, I'm thinking about going up on Saturday, just for the day, to soak up the fresh air, maybe visit some friends, and then come back to town on Saturday afternoon. No accommodation expenses although there's accommodation for all budgets up there.

So that'll be at the back of my mind for the rest of week. Something to look forward to.

Anyway, its good to be back. Today, Tuesday is a beautiful day in Sydney. Drawing towards the end of winter and its a mild 17C or thereabouts, which I believe is mid 60's in Fahrenheit. Not bad for winter, but the mornings are still cool.

Grant Hackett was maganimous in his post 1500 freestyle press conference. Then again he's a magnamimous guy. And what about Michael Phelps. I confess I was one of the doubters when he said he'd try for 8 gold in the pool, but he's done it admirably. Well done Michael.

I'm fighting a rear guard action against the flu, which I've had for about 3 weeks. It just doesn't want to go away. Every time I think I've beaten it, it comes back and I get another attack of the sniffles, sore throat, coughing etc. But I'm just about over it.

August 06, 2008

The Olympics start on Friday night. 08/08/08 at 08.08pm. Thus far we've had an Internet brouhaha, Chinese protestors, protesting about being forced out of their homes to make way for developers building large accommodation complexes, Brits protesting about Tibet (rightfully so) and 7 Russians being sent packing for being drug cheats, along with 13 other lice. And they call it sport, and they think people care.

Well I care. I care about fairness, equity, the Aussie swimmers, Grant Hackett, Matthew Mitcham (go Matt) and everyone who is striving to do their best, drug free.

I'll probably steer clear of the Opening Ceremony on TV, but will be watching the rest of it from time to time. Good luck to the American swimmer going for 7 medals. Forgotten his name, but I wish him all the best.

August 05, 2008

Things are fairly quiet on the home front and conversely busy, but not frantic at work.

My heart goes out to my intercontinental (no, not incontinental) blog buddy, mourning the sudden loss of his life partner. Words, although well intentioned always seem insufficient in these cases. Keep your chins up fella.

But the circle turns and there's another friend who's about to become a father for the first time.

My thoughts and prayers are with both these people, and those they love.

Had a great weekend with the highlight being a Choir trivia night on Saturday night. A very enjoyable night.

The weather has been cool, mid teens (centigrade)during the day. We're expecting some wet weather over the next couple of days. Hopefully it won't bring a return of the cold I've just about beaten.